Video content is seeing massive gains in popularity. If correctly implemented, video content has been shown to be far more effective than written content in many scenarios.

For consumers:

Youtube has over 1 billion monthly users, which translates to ⅓ of the internet

4x as many consumers like to watch video of a product rather than read about it

For b2b marketing:

91% of businesses plan to increase spending in 2017

70% of businesses are satisfied with video marketing performance

75% of business watch work related videos weekly

The following are ways video marketing can help a business’s online presence.

Social Media

Social media has become far more visual and interactive than websites for promoting businesses. Consumers and businesses are now more accessible to each other through posts, shares, and messaging.

By far the most attention grabbing change that social media has brought is the large influx of visual video content. In order to get the most out of social media, it is important to know which platforms are trending now:

Story Telling

Platforms called Stories are a great way for users to assemble their content into a single curated form that tells a story. Stories often offer timely content for a day and then get removed after 24 hours.

Live Streaming

This form of content allows business to interact with customers, take customers on events, show off personality, and share the most exciting moments — all in real time.

How to get started? Search for examples of Instagram Stories and/or Snapchat Stories online, then search video editing tools and start experimenting. For example, use the Boomerang editing tool to capture content for Instagram, and then upload it as a story. Get a feel for how easy these tools are to use.

Website

Having video on your website can build interest and give the website a professional flare.

Including video on a landing page can boost conversion rates by up to 80%

People spent an average of 2.6x more time on pages with video than on those without

52% of consumers say watching videos about products and brands make them more confident about online purchase decisions

Here are some examples of ways that videos can be implemented into websites for maximum results:

Video as a Homepage

Videos embedded into homepages can quickly and effectively communicate information about the business through dialogue and/or visuals. This can be extremely useful for businesses that cannot easily communicate their products/services in writing.

Video as a Background

This can make the business look impressionable and create more appeal, but be careful, as the wrong video can be distracting.

Video makes your content sharable which leads to an increasing number of backlinks, a key factor to determining your search engine rank.

How to get started? Create a Youtube channel for your company. Video production quality is important so you might want to work with a professional company or agency if you do not have the right equipment and skills in house.

Email Campaigns

Emails have a limited time to sell an idea to customers. Short videos is a great way to make customers listen.

Using the word ‘video’ in the email subject line boosts open rates by up to 20% and clickthrough rates by up to 65%

Retention rates improve by up to 95% compared to 10% when reading text

How to get started? Look at past email campaigns that have missed the mark and think about how they could be improved with video. Would you use people, make a slideshow, etc? Turn a written email into a script and make a video.

Content Marketing

Video content is one of the biggest growing trends! One of the most successful ways of utilizing video it to create helpful content.

48% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from companies and apps that have instructional video content

73% of consumers say that regularly receiving useful information from an advertiser is the most important attribute when selecting a brand

There are a variety of ways to achieve this. Businesses can make informative how-to videos.

For maximum success, make sure the videos are:

To the point (no longer than they have to be)

Give the customers what they want

Better than the competitor’s content

Use sources (photos, videos, charts)

How to get started? Answer the following questions:

Which aspects of the business are most visually interesting?

Which aspects of the business are the hardest to communicate through writing?

What aspects of the business can be the most helpful to customers. For example, if the business sells travel gear it could be coaching the customer on how to maximize a road trip experience?

There’s no doubt that video marketing represents a shift in philosophy around how to best appeal to consumers. It helps take engagement and brand communication to the next level. Videos not only increases the visual aesthetic of content, but they are also proven to increase consumer engagement and retention, which in turn helps brands more effectively influence consumer behavior.